Female vets discuss values of military life

One of the female vets hoped to encourage the kids to consider military service after high school.

BY JORDAN COHEN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

WARREN — Despite the heavy snow and treacherous roads, nearly 40 people — many of them elementary school-age children — made their way to the Warren YWCA Saturday to hear local women who served in the armed services talk about the values of military life.

“This is an opportunity for kids to hear from veterans about career choices,” said Toni Blake, YW Teen Program manager. “It’s good for them to hear a woman’s perspective.”

Blake said this is the second year for the program “A Valentine Tribute to Female Veterans.”

Veterans Melissa Rentz, Hubbard, who was an Army specialist for five years, and Sherry Nuzzi, Warren, who served four years in the Air Force, said military experience offers young women skills that easily adapt to today’s workplace.

“It teaches good organization skills for life,” said Nuzzi, a former member of the Warren Board of Education who is a medical-records clerk at the Veterans Affairs clinic in Youngstown. “You can also get a trade that is marketable in the real world.”

Rentz, a ninth-grade English teacher at Warren G. Harding High School, said she finds “most children afraid of the military,” and she hopes to help them overcome their fears and consider the service as an option after high school.

“The military has tons of things for young women that can make them better and stronger,” Rentz said. “It can help teach them how to get the most out of life they possibly can.”

Blake said that several current reservists had hoped to attend but could not due to assignments in Haiti with the 910th Airlift Wing from the Youngstown Air Reserve Station or reserve training that is usually conducted in the first weekend of the month.

Blake said the YWCA’s mentoring program for young girls organized Saturday’s multiple tributes.

The program also observed Black History Month with a performance by Novella Slaughter, who re- enacts historical black women, some of whom are not well-known. Slaughter, a performer with the National Freedom Center, Cincinnati, portrayed Eliza Harris, a runaway slave who managed to escape with her daughter in 1836 from a Kentucky slave owner to safety in Canada.